Welcome to IBM Employee News and Links

Quick Links:

Get involved! Insider trading After IBM Lenovo Employee Discount

Previous highlights:

March 13, 2010 March 6, 2010 February 27, 2010 February 20, 2010 February 13, 2010 February 6, 2010 January 30, 2010 January 23, 2010 January 16, 2010 January 9, 2010 January 2, 2010 December 26, 2009 December 19, 2009 December 12, 2009 December 5, 2009 November 28, 2009 November 21, 2009 November 14, 2009 November 7, 2009 October 31, 2009 October 24, 2009 October 17, 2009 October 10, 2009 October 3, 2009 September 26, 2009 September 19, 2009 September 12, 2009 September 5, 2009 August 29, 2009 August 22, 2009 August 15, 2009 August 8, 2009 August 1, 2009 July 25, 2009 July 18, 2009 July 11, 2009 July 4, 2009 June 27, 2009 June 20, 2009 June 13, 2009 June 6, 2009 May 30, 2009 May 23, 2009 May 16, 2009 May 9, 2009 May 2, 2009 April 25, 2009 April 18, 2009 April 11, 2009 April 4, 2009 March 28, 2009 March 21, 2009 March 14, 2009 March 7, 2009 February 28, 2009 February 21, 2009 February 14, 2009 February 7, 2009 January 31, 2009 January 24, 2009 January 17, 2009 January 10, 2009 January 03, 2009 December 27, 2008 December 20, 2008 December 13, 2008 December 6, 2008 November 29, 2008 November 22, 2008 November 15, 2008 November 8, 2008 November 1, 2008 October 25, 2008 October 18, 2008 October 11, 2008 October 4, 2008 September 27, 2008 September 20, 2008 September 13, 2008 September 6, 2008 August 30, 2008 August 23, 2008 August 16, 2008 August 9, 2008 August 2, 2008 July 26, 2008 July 19, 2008 July 12, 2008 July 5, 2008 June 28, 2008 June 21, 2008 June 14, 2008 June 7, 2008 May 31, 2008 May 24, 2008 May 17, 2008 May 10, 2008 2008 Stock Meeting April 26, 2008 April 19, 2008 April 12, 2008 April 5, 2008 March 29, 2008 March 22, 2008 March 15, 2008 March 8, 2008 March 1, 2008 February 16, 2008 February 9, 2008 February 2, 2008 January 26, 2008 January 19, 2008 January 12, 2008 January 5, 2008 December 29, 2007 December 22, 2007 December 15, 2007 December 8, 2007 December 1, 2007 November 24, 2007 November 17, 2007 November 10, 2007 November 3, 2007 October 27, 2007 October 20, 2007 October 13, 2007 October 6, 2007 September 29, 2007 September 22, 2007 September 15, 2007 September 8, 2007 September 1, 2007 August 25, 2007 August 18, 2007 August 11, 2007 August 4, 2007 July 28, 2007 July 21, 2007 July 14, 2007 July 7, 2007 June 30, 2007 June 23, 2007 June 16, 2007 June 9, 2007 June 2, 2007 May 26, 2007 May 19, 2007 May 12, 2007 May 5, 2007 2007 Stock Meeting April 21, 2007 April 14, 2007 April 7, 2007 March 31, 2007 March 24, 2007 March 17, 2007 March 10, 2007 March 3, 2007 February 24, 2007 February 17, 2007 February 10, 2007 February 3, 2007 January 27, 2007 January 20, 2007 January 13, 2007 January 6, 2007 December 30, 2006 December 23, 2006 December 16, 2006 December 9, 2006 December 2, 2006 November 25, 2006 November 18, 2006 November 11, 2006 November 4, 2006 October 28, 2006 October 21, 2006 October 14, 2006 October 7, 2006 September 30, 2006 September 23, 2006 September 16, 2006 September 9, 2006 September 2, 2006 August 26, 2006 August 19, 2006 August 12, 2006 August 5, 2006 July 29, 2006 July 22, 2006 July 15, 2006 July 8, 2006 July 1, 2006 June 24, 2006 June 17, 2006 June 10, 2006 June 3, 2006 May 27, 2006 May 20, 2006 May 13, 2006 May 6, 2006 2006 Stock Meeting April 22, 2006 April 15, 2006 April 8, 2006 April 1, 2006 March 25, 2006 March 18, 2006 March 11, 2006 March 4, 2006 February 25, 2006 February 18, 2006 February 11, 2006 February 4, 2006 January 28, 2006 January 21, 2006 January 14, 2006 January 7, 2006 December 31, 2005 December 24, 2005 December 17, 2005 December 10, 2005 December 03, 2005 November 26, 2005 November 19, 2005 November 12, 2005 November 5, 2005 October 29, 2005 October 22, 2005 October 15, 2005 October 8, 2005 October 1, 2005 September 24, 2005 September 17, 2005 September 10, 2005 September 3, 2005 August 27, 2005 August 20, 2005 August 13, 2005 August 6, 2005 July 30, 2005 July 23, 2005 July 16, 2005 July 9, 2005 July 2, 2005 June 25, 2005 June 18, 2005 June 11, 2005 June 4, 2005 May 28, 2005 May 21, 2005 May 14, 2005 May 7, 2005 April 30, 2005 April 23, 2005 April 16, 2005 April 9, 2005 April 2, 2005 March 26, 2005 March 19, 2005 March 12, 2005 March 5, 2005 February 26, 2005 February 19, 2005 February 12, 2005 February 5, 2005 January 29, 2005 January 22, 2005 January 15, 2005 January 8, 2005 January 1, 2005 December 25, 2004 December 18, 2004 December 11, 2004 December 4, 2004 November 27, 2004 November 20, 2004 November 13, 2004 November 6, 2004 October 30, 2004 October 23, 2004 October 16, 2004 October 9, 2004 October 2, 2004 September 25, 2004 September 18, 2004 September 11, 2004 September 4, 2004 August 28, 2004 August 21, 2004 August 14, 2004 August 7, 2004 July 31, 2004 July 24, 2004 July 17, 2004 July 10, 2004 July 3, 2004 June 26, 2004 June 19, 2004 June 5, 2004 May 29, 2004 May 22, 2004 May 15, 2004 May 8, 2004 2004 Stock Meeting April 24, 2004 April 10, 2004 April 3, 2004 March 27, 2004 March 20, 2004 March 13, 2004 March 6, 2004 February 28, 2004 February 21, 2004 February 14, 2004 February 7, 2004 February 1, 2004 January 18, 2004 December 27, 2003 December 20, 2003 December 13, 2003 December 6, 2003 November 29, 2003 November 22, 2003 November 15, 2003 November 8, 2003 November 1, 2003 October 25, 2003 October 18, 2003 October 11, 2003 October 4, 2003 September 27, 2003 September 20, 2003 September 13, 2003 September 6, 2003 August 30, 2003 August 23, 2003 August 16, 2003 August 9, 2003 Pension Lawsuit Win July 26, 2003 July 19, 2003 July 12, 2003 July 5, 2003 June 28, 2003 June 21, 2003 June 14, 2003 June 7, 2003 May 31, 2003 May 24, 2003 May 17, 2003 May 10, 2003 2003 Stock Meeting April 26, 2003 April 19, 2003 April 12, 2003 April 5, 2003 March 29, 2003 March 22, 2003 March 15, 2003 March 8, 2003 March 1, 2003 February 22, 2003 February 15, 2003 February 8, 2003 February 1, 2003 January 25, 2003 January 18, 2003 January 11, 2003 January 4, 2003 December 28, 2002 December 21, 2002 December 14, 2002 December 7, 2002 November 30, 2002 November 23, 2002 November 16, 2002 November 9, 2002 November 2, 2002 October 26, 2002 October 19, 2002 October 12, 2002 October 5, 2002 September 28, 2002 September 21, 2002 September 14, 2002 September 7, 2002 August 31, 2002 August 24, 2002 August 17, 2002 August 10, 2002 August 3, 2002 July 27, 2002 July 20, 2002 July 13, 2002 July 6, 2002 June 29, 2002 June 22, 2002 June 15, 2002 June 8, 2002 June 1, 2002 May 25, 2002 May 18, 2002 May 11, 2002 2002 Stock Meeting April 27, 2002 April 20, 2002 April 13, 2002 April 6, 2002 March 30, 2002 March 23, 2002 March 16, 2002 March 9, 2002 March 2, 2002 February 23, 2002 February 16, 2002 February 9, 2002 February 2, 2002 January 26, 2002 January 19, 2002 January 12, 2002 January 5, 2002 December 29, 2001 December 22, 2001 December 15, 2001 December 8, 2001 December 1, 2001 November 24, 2001 November 17, 2001 November 10, 2001 November 3, 2001 October 27, 2001 October 20, 2001 October 13, 2001 October 6, 2001 September 29, 2001 September 22, 2001 September 15, 2001 September 8, 2001 September 1, 2001 August 25, 2001 August 18, 2001 August 11, 2001 August 4, 2001 July 28, 2001 July 21, 2001 July 14, 2001 July 7, 2001 June 30, 2001 June 23, 2001 June 16, 2001 June 9, 2001 June 2, 2001 May 26, 2001 May 19, 2001 May 12, 2001 May 5, 2001 2001 Stock Meeting April 21, 2001 April 14, 2001 April 7, 2001 March 31, 2001 March 24, 2001 March 17, 2001 March 10, 2001 March 3, 2001 February 24, 2001 February 17, 2001 February 10, 2001 February 3, 2001 January 27, 2001 January 20, 2001 January 13, 2001 January 6, 2001 December 30, 2000 December 23, 2000 December 16, 2000 December 9, 2000 December 2, 2000 November 24, 2000 November 17, 2000 November 10, 2000 November 4, 2000 October 28, 2000 October 21, 2000 October 14, 2000 October 7, 2000 September 30, 2000 September 23, 2000 September 16, 2000 September 9, 2000 September 2, 2000 August 26, 2000 August 19, 2000 August 12, 2000 July 29, 2000 July 22, 2000 July 15, 2000 July 1, 2000 June 24, 2000 June 17, 2000 June 10, 2000 June 3, 2000 May 27, 2000 May 20, 2000 May 13, 2000 May 6, 2000 April, 2000

Highlights—July 19, 2008

• MarketWatch: IBM earnings up 22% on services, software deals. By Rex Crum. IBM Corp. on Thursday said second-quarter profit rose more than 22% from a year ago as the technology and services giant reported sales of almost $27 billion, led by strong growth in the company's software and services businesses. Additionally, IBM felt strongly enough about its performance that it raised its full-year earnings forecast to at least $8.75 a share from $8.50 a share. ...

  "It was probably the best quarter Big Blue has had in recent memory, if not ever," said Bob Djurdjevic, president of Annex Research. "Wall Street doomsayers and recession buzzards had better look for trouble outside the IT industry, for things could not be better in this sector." ...

  IBM also said it signed new services deals worth $14.7 billion, up 12% from a year ago, giving the company a total backlog of $117 billion in services deals.

• The following are selected comments from readers of the MarketWatch article:
  • It is SOOOO nice to see that my 15% paycut and no raise due to lack of funding to Technical Services is paying off for IBM. I honestly hope that Sam gets a major multi-million dollar bonus for this hugh increase. After all, they have the cash on hand to fund the execs stock options at $0 per share, but cant give the employees a decent bump in pay. Most people in Technical Services received less than 2% "top contributor award" as a raise.
  • IBM profits up 22% while management pleaded poverty on raises in June. Many employees received very little or nothing while Sam and the other execs get rich. time to unionize! www.allianceibm.org
  • I don't work for IBM, but I do work for another large multinational as a software engineer. I would join a union in a heartbeat.
  • No raise again this year (IBM doesn't offer COLA for employees) and with inflation I make less than 8 years ago. Yes it's good to have a job, however with such a widening gap between fantastic profits and no raises, its disheartening. Can't even purchase office supplies but Sam gets an 11% bump? In the last 4 years I have had one raise, my performance has been excellent, just no money available, according to management (because it's going to executives and shareholders). Training? What training, that went out the window when Gerstner retired. Training is all but a special case approval now. paulianna2002 There is a Union - The Alliance@IBM CWA Local 1701. For all employees I ask you consider joining, we cant change things unless we unite. Regards Dan
  • Palmisano and other executives are forgetting the many hard-working employees who have built IBM into the great company that it is. They are amassing huge fortunes to leave to their children while I, a permanent employee, received a 15% pay cut. I will have nothing to leave my children except college loans they will have to pay off.
  • Let's see, I retired in 1989 - If my right hand only had two fingers, then I could count the number of increases! Wish I got a 22% raise! Any raise would be nice. Hope you are reading this Palmisano
• E-mail sent to Alliance@IBM members. Excerpts: IBM has posted the financial result for the past quarter--a whopping 22% increase! Many employees have posted comments on the Alliance web site of receiving no or very little in pay raises. Manufacturing workers in Burlington, who average $30,000 a year were told by their management in June not to expect any pay raise. Employees across the country have said that management pleaded poverty when it came time to hand out raises. Retirees still have not received a COLA.

  Yet CEO Sam Palmisano received an 11% pay raise and he and other executives have been enriching themselves from selling stock options. (See http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/insider/trans.asp?view=All&Symbol=ibm).

  Many media outlets are reporting the profit surge. We need to get the message out that employees demand pay raises. Please go online to your local or national media and use the online comments area in the IBM profit article and make your views known. You can start here.

  At a time where employees and retirees are facing declining standards of living due to the high cost of everything it is time to demand that IBM share the wealth with those who built and continue to work at IBM.

  If you are not yet a dues paying member of the Alliance please join and help support the organizing campaign at IBM.

• The Register (United Kingdom): IBM misses memo on economic slowdown during Q2. By Austin Modine. Excerpt: IBM has yet again shrugged off the global economic slowdown with second quarter profits leaping 22 per cent and revenues rising. Although improvements were reported across most operations, IBM's bread-and-butter services division was the star of the show. "I've got to say that this is one of the best quarters I've ever seen," said CFO Mark Loughridge, during the companies quarterly investor conference call.
• The following are selected comments posted by The Register readers in response to the above article:
  • Only an American could call a cut back in the pension plans of the workers that put the company on top a cheery plan.
  • disgraceful ...funny, just yesterday, my IBM manager explained how conditions were tough and there's no money for payrises. awful greedy bastards probably why it's leaking talent at a rate of knots.
  • IBM have not gave out any payrises. I work at IBM, (AC) of course. I have been told despite a PBC 2+ and increasing my billable by way over 50% of the required amount (And I don't get O/T) that the market is tough and we wont get a payrise across the board, and this IS the services touted on the BBC and elsewhere. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7513208.stm I got nothing. I make them this money I'm leaving, see how they cope with zero talent, high performance culture my ar&e!
  • How do they get away with it? They charge the customers more each year for their staff but rarely pass that increase on. I'm also leaving.
  • IBMer too, Sorry to hear about your IBM pay woes. I too got a PBC 2+ and got a great payrise. And I too am one of the ones that actually does the work to make the product (i.e. not in sales). That said, according to my recent pension plan statement, my money is now worth less than when I put it in. So really looking forward to my retirement in 30 odd years time.
  • Lots of unhappy IBMers. So according to our esteemed leaders and backed up by results we (IBM) did pretty well last year and things are looking good this year. But, as some of my colleagues have pointed out many (most?) have got a 0% pay increase despite being told that we (individually) achieved at a higher than expected level (yes I got a 2+ as well). It would be nice to work for a company that rewarded its employees based on results. There was a time I thought IBM did that, but if it was ever true it isn't now. Apologies to non-IBMers out there reading all this moaning. Having complained internally and got nowhere I'm hoping that one or two senior managers may start to question their policies if they see a few complaints in public.
  • IBM is an embarrassment. What an outrage! IBM is letting its people down once again. In the past few days, employees in IBM UK are being told they are not getting pay raises because of the current climate and the credit crunch. In some cases whole business units are being told they are not getting raises, in others the coverage is as little as 30%. The public face of IBM is a company doing well. Looking inwardly there is low moral, little motivation and an army of staff being pushed to their limits in terms of what they will give to this company without getting anything back.
  • Where have the IBM profits gone? By A Wyllie. Like many of the people posting comments about IBM, I too am a 2+ performer and getting 0% increase because we failed to meet our targets. Reading the news headlines today from the BBC and elsewhere just adds insult to injury. To cap it all, our great leader Sam Palmisano also sent an internal broadcast email to everyone this morning telling us what a wonderful 1st and 2nd quarter we had had. So who is telling porkies ? Where have the profits gone ? Well here are some thoughts ...

    Could it be that IBM is using > $2b in a share buy-back. Not surprisingly this boosts the share price, and guess who benefits from that. Well the very same execs who are ordering the buy-back are choosing to exercise their share options and are selling them at market price ! A nice little earner if you can get it. Furthermore, the same execs also get a nice bonus due to the rising share price. Disgusting isn't it ... smells of Enron too.

    Another chunk of the profits is being used to boost share dividends (earnings per share), and what do you know, it's the same execs with their nose in the trough once again. First the wait for the quarterly dividend payment before selling up those share options, and would you believe the get another bonus for the increased earnings per share.

    I have never known morale in IBM to be so bad, but it is what we have come to expect from this money grabbing business who exploit their employees and give nothing back in return. But then again, it is a cheap way to increase the attrition rates in the drive to move work from Europe and the US into low wage economies. It's just like the tea and coffee plantation exploitation all over again.

  • Noticed around the world. Yes the internal trading is going mad now: Ask yourself, if IBm are doing so well why is nobody buying. F*ck this I'm off home, stick your billable utilisation up your A%se :) I am a PBC2+ and next year I could be a 3. And what would I expect, same as I got this year. http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/insider/trans.asp?view=All&Symbol=ibm If your thinking of a services contract with IBM, then beware! No workers left, just salesmen. No UK base either. Just another TATA, only more expensive but just as crap :)
  • 2+ on a PBC? YOU SLACKER! By Ian Michael Gumby. Unless they changed the PBC ratings, in my day, you needed a 1 to get any sort of raise. A 2 meant that you were doing a good job and a 3 meant you had a job for now, but you need to improve your performance. Yes IBM works the carp out of you and expects you to be grateful. Do your time and move on to a better company.
  • Tale of Two IBMs. In some ways I was surprised to see a lot of ppl with 2+ marks in their performance review getting no pay rise (For non-IBMers it goes 1,2+,2,3 then 4 , Don't ask why!) Then I realised they are in the services division. I and the other person quoted above who got a 2+ and a pay rise are in Software Group. Its obvious that IBMs strategy has been to acquire and make money from software since services has become so commoditised and there is little profit. Hence the investment in that division and hence why I would recommend anyone joining IBM join SWG!

    Ironic that the latest results have been driven by services doing so well - I personally see it as a mistake to neglect services since services drive hardware and software sales so by pissin off all the services ppl we will end up losing the SW and HW sales in the long run.

    People bitching that it shows the services managers are all tightwads miss the glacial nature of IBM - it takes months for the business to decide on pay levels so these will have been set when the economy was all doom and gloom and IBMs strategy is to invest in the software business so surprise surprise no money for services.

  • 2+ on a PBC? YOU SLACKER! By Grrr. Things have moved on since your day, downhill mostly ! PBC 1's are now even rarer than hen's teeth. Why ? Well they moved the bell-curve of course and dictated that there were too many PBC 1's and 2+'s. So don't kid yourself that a PBC rating is anything to do with your performance, cos they have already decided on the numbers in each band before they even look at performance.
  • this years targets affected our pay By janetaylor. sorry but I disagree with the 'tale of 2 IBMs' comment above. My manager told me that unit's salary budget, which was low anyway, had been reduced further as a direct result of our failure to meet targets THIS YEAR. Targets are being set unachievably high, so that they can never be met by business units (hence no pay raises) but profits are still headline high
  • Re: Ian Michael Gumby. They have changed the PBC ratings. There are now 5 grades rather than 3. The top 5% get a grade 1 and get a pay rise well below inflation provided that 1) they are below the median actual pay range for their band (not below the median of the pay scale, but below the median of what is actually paid), 2) they have premium skills, 3) their business unit is doing well, and 4) the attrition rate in their unit is too high. Someone on a 2+ (again about 5%) might get a pay rise of some sort if they are lucky and meet the criteria above. No-one else gets a pay rise unless they are senior management, who get a trough.
  • Ah the old stories, the old excuses - there's nothing like them! By Ex IBM Global Services. Sorry to say that this all sounds depressingly familiar - which is why I handed in the battery operated blue suit last year. Guess what - there is life & pay outside IBM. I hope all you IBMers remember to fill in CLAIM on time today - you wouldn't want the CLAIM police hounding you with yet another reason why your endeavours do not merit a pay rise.
  • Re: Ian Michael Gumby By Grrr. There are other discussion forums like this on the web where even PBC 1 performers are reporting zero salary increase ! Try some Google searches.
  • Union anyone? By Claude Warren. There is a union movement inside IBM in the states (http://www.allianceibm.org/localcontacts.htm) not that they get enough support to change anything, but it could be a start. In the meantime, here in the states, everything is being done by global resources (GR = offshore). Soon, if you work for IBM in the states, and are not working in corp headquarters, you will be a traveling salesperson that sells products and services that will be delivered by offshore groups. Happy days ahead. Me? I'm looking for work in Ireland -- I gotta get out of the states as well as IBM
  • Re: Ian Michael Gumby. Ian, do you really think that all these IBMers posting are dead wood who are merely bitter and making excuses for their poor performance? Trust me, the dead wood was culled years ago. Some, if not most of us stay not because of momentum or inadequacy, but because we believe in what IBM was, what it should be, and (hopefully) will be again, if we have any say in it. The Fat Bastard Sam will be gone some day...
  • Lots of comments from employees, See http://www.ibmemployee.com
  • Mr Impersonal. I got it too by bulk e-mail no less. Dear Colleague, This email is coming from me (as your 2nd Line Manager) because of the recent organisational changes in AS Delivery and the many resulting changes in manager:professional alignments.

    So far in 2008, we are not achieving our full potential and have missed our signings, revenue, profit and utilisation targets. Whilst we have improved year on year, we have fallen behind what is required to achieve our full year targets and as such (in common with many other lines of business within the UK) the budget available for salary increases in 2008 is much reduced.

    I therefore regret to inform you that you have not been selected to receive a salary increase this year.

    I am aware that with a PBC 2+ rating for 2007, this will be a major disappointment to you. However due to the limited salary budget available this year, it has just not been possible to include everybody with a 2+ rating in this year's coverage.

    I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued commitment to AS Delivery. Please talk to your "NEW" Manager if you have any concerns. As we are now in the mid year review cycle this may be the most appropriate time for the discussion.

  • Play it again Sam. I received the same email as above. 2+ on PBC, exceeded utilisation, won awards at the account I'm on - but not even a below inflation increase. zilch! I worked out that the extra (unpaid) billable overtime I put in last year netted an extra £25k of revenue for IBM - I feel embarrassed. I've nearly 10 years service and this has proved to me that its time to move on. I've already started sending out my CV, there is nothing to keep anyone at IBM anymore. The sad truth is that this is all by design - IBM want to lose headcount (and continue to offshore everything), but won't pay any severance. Its a war of attrition, I hope I've won !!
• CNN/Money: WSJ: IBM To Invest $1 Billion Over Next 3 Yrs In Its NY Chip Plant. Excerpt: International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) said it will invest $1 billion in its East Fishkill, N.Y., semiconductor plant over the next three years, reducing concerns that it might exit the chip-making business. The announcement came as part of a disclosure that IBM, which is based in Armonk, N.Y., also will spend some $500 million on research and development and capital equipment for the University of Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, where it funds research.

  The state of New York said it will spend $90 million on economic-development grants associated with the semiconductor plant and the college. It also will spend $50 million to build a new semiconductor-packaging center that IBM will operate along with the college and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, of Troy, N.Y. The location of the center hasn't been determined.

• Albany Times-Union: A sweet IBM deal. $1.6B expansion could create new jobs upstate. By James M. Odato. Excerpts: IBM, with the help of state taxpayers, will pour more than $1.6 billion into expanding the company's chip manufacturing and research operations. The effort is expected to create at least 325 new jobs at the University at Albany's nanotechnology center and another 675 at a separate facility upstate, Paterson administration officials said Monday. IBM will invest $1.5 billion and the state will provide $140 million in what one state official, who declined to be named, said was the biggest return on investment ever for a New York economic development incentive package. ...

  The investment and job creation would begin by 2009 and be completed by 2011. It comes with a pledge from IBM that it will not cut jobs in New York this year. It announced hundreds of layoffs in Vermont and Canada in recent months.

• Poughkeepsie Journal: Big Blue stakes billion on region. State will add millions in deal. By Sarah Bradshaw. Excerpts: The deal will help IBM retain roughly 1,400 jobs in the semiconductor field at the East Fishkill plant as well as a pledge to have no more layoffs in 2008, an important move to calm fears IBM would eventually cut jobs there. John Kelly, IBM senior vice president and director of research, said the agreement will ensure semiconductor jobs will remain in East Fishkill. The deal will also create synergy and new opportunities between IBM's East Fishkill and Poughkeepsie plants, Kelly said.

  Together the facilities employ more than 11,000 people, but IBM officials stopped short of pledging other jobs outside of the semiconductor industry will be spared future job cuts after the end of this year. ...

  One IBM retiree wasn't as upbeat about the state's involvement. Poughkeepsie resident Benoit Ventimiglia feels IBM should add 1,400 jobs to its East Fishkill operation before getting New York state funds. The 84-year-old retired from IBM in 1992 after working as a senior engineer in Poughkeepsie. In 1996, he worked as a sub-contractor for IBM in East Fishkill until getting laid off in 2001. This May, to help make ends meet, he sought a one-year work contract with IBM, but it was canceled. "All of a sudden, they said they froze all hiring," Ventimiglia said. "I'd like to see the job market growing. Otherwise there is no benefit to the people," he added.

  Lee Conrad, national coordinator of the Alliance@IBM, a local of the Communications Workers of America, expressed concern about the lack of specific details announced Tuesday. "We need to have full disclosure from IBM and New York state about just how many jobs and what kinds of jobs those are," he said. "If they are going to talk about employment, they need to be clear about what the definition is. Many times we see these jobs filled with temporary workers, and that's just not right." Conrad also stressed any no-layoff deals should be in place for all of IBM's New York locations because state money is involved.

• Raleigh News & Observer blog: Where workers are 'resources': IBM and the American dream. Full excerpt: Last week, IBM laid off about 30 people in Research Triangle Park as a cost-cutting measure. IBM doesn't like to use the word "layoff," as it will personalize the victims; it uses the term "resource action." If you were to read the IBM dictionary, you would see that the company does not have any employees or people, only "resources." Everyone and everything is a resource. Well, the resources that have been eliminated from IBM's payroll translate into people and families that do not have monthly paychecks anymore.

  The last time IBMers got a memo from their leader about the state of the company was in early spring, when CEO Sam Palmisano was raving about corporate profits and the stock price increase. In fact, he did his job so well that he received $20.9 million in compensation, an 11 percent increase. In contrast, most resources did not receive a pay raise this year, and the lucky resources that did cannot say that the raise is outpacing inflation.

  The math is very clear to me: Rob people of their livelihoods so that the fat cat can get even fatter. The corporate greed of the 21st century and the return of the robber barons is nothing new. IBM is not the only multinational corporation that has total disregard for the people it hires and fires. The bigger question is: Why are people doing nothing about it?

  How low will the American middle class go before it starts demanding a New Deal from the government to protect it from modern-day robber barons? In France, for example, a corporation needs to show at least three consecutive quarters of losses before it can lay off a single person. It makes sense to me. How about this one from Japan: salary caps!

  Unfortunately, a lot of people in the U.S. still believe in the American dream. They still hope that one day they will strike it rich and make millions of dollars. Statistically speaking, that will never happen to Joe Average. As long as Joe Average does not realize this, the fat cats will continue to use the American dream as a carrot on a stick to prevent the people from uniting and demanding a change. Dragana Djuricic Mendel. Wake Forest.

• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: IBM Layoffs" by "ibmaccountant". Full excerpt: You've hit the code. It's everyone for him or herself, and take what you can and don't think of loyalty. You are right on the pension, the only thing you have going for you is the enhanced 401(k) which ain't much nowadays.

  Think like a mercenary, think like a slave about ready to leave the plantation for better things and you'll be OK.

  In the Americas, the future is in small, quick firms that are close to the customer, not the big multinationals. You've been servicing a declining market. Here's some ideas:

  1. Take every announcement from IBM management and parse it cynically and you'll find the truth. For example, the "Spirit" program was a facade to keep the brand blinded sheep under control for just a little while until LEAN was well underway.
  2. If you can't go to classroom education, try to the the on-line thing and order books, two or three at a time, that you might find of value or that might teach you something post-IBM.
  3. Order as much office supplies as you can, keep building an inventory for when you are shot.
  4. Don't complain, act compliant but act smart and NEVER do anything that doesn't give you something in return. If you have to do it, take your time. People aren't getting penalized for not getting things done quickly as long as the slave acts like they are trying. Think what a slave would do to survive until the escape plan is ready.
  5. For IBM management, professionalism is just a word. Ally yourself with business partners. Get close, become their advisors and when IBM for a few more fistful of dollars and wants to screw them advise them and steer them to safety. They won't forget you when you are canned. Same thing for software vendors and competitors. Be a partner to them and don't be a pawn to IBM.
  6. As you slow down and make plans to leave, don't leave. Let them can you. Get paid to get kicked out the door.
• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: IBM Layoffs" by "thekanck". Full excerpt: You're almost there... I tend to think that the way IBM REALLY wants it (and to some extent still gets it) is for employees to REMAIN "loyal" to IBM and put in lots of free overtime, forgo vacation, and maintain "can-do" attitudes while experiencing a lack of career advancement & educational opportunities, pay reductions, pension plan reductions, medical plan reductions, longer forced commutes, etc. etc. etc.

  While AT THE SAME TIME IBM displays NO loyalty to employees and has complete freedom of action to lay off these loyal employees at a moment's notice (after they have trained their replacements that is), reduce their salary or whatever is required to get the current quarter's stock options vested to the executives. OK that's my cynical post for this week.

• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: Retirees Face Prospect of Outliving Savings" by "richellen". Full excerpt: A job at the State has worked out well for us.. 5 years employment and a minimum age (62 I think) allowed my wife to retire and put me under the state's medical plans. There are no monthly fees and the co-pays are small.. The dental plan is about $40 for both of us but is much better than IBM's. I'm on Medicare and all the plans have drug coverage.. I just dropped the IBM medical...seemed pain free...unless a snafu surfaces.. Dick
• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: IBM Layoffs" by "Bob". Full excerpt: Congratulations on making it this far and also being in a position to have good outside contacts. Too many people who worked at IBM did not have that same opportunity or advantage of outside contact. If you worked in an IBM manufacturing plant or in a small "IBM town" (e.g., Endicott is a prime example - middle of nowhere in NY state), you are suddenly restricted in your options. If you are in a "small town" area, job options are typically nil. Selling your house in a market where every other ex-IBMer is trying to sell their house means abandoning what you own (or skipping out on the bank) and losing any equity. Also, once you are over 50, try finding someone willing to hire an "old fart". There are a lot of other factors involved. Now someone living in or near a large metropolitan area or who has spent a lot of time with IBM customers obviously has a better chance of landing on their feet. For the rest, "Welcome to Wal-Mart" or "Would you like fries with that?"

  Personally, I was also fortunate to be in a high-tech area when I took "early retirement" (after just being transferred because my "skills were in demand" at that site). I was able to temp/contract until my age worked against me (in spite of all my marketable skills and keeping abreast of current technology with college classes). But that is another story. I was also fortunate that while I was tempting, I was able to earn more than what I made at IBM, allowing me to set aside my retirement checks. However, not everyone was/is that fortunate. I will say one thing, if I had a crystal ball, I would never have busted my backside in all those IBM years working all those long hours, week after week.

  One last comment - re being a harsh world and companies no longer being loyal to "loyal employees", I posted in the IBM Think Group about Tom Watson Sr. not laying off people during the depression and while I was working, we had a couple of depressions and no one was laid off. Today, IBM management would just as soon lay off more people and tell Wall Street look how while they cut costs and then give themselves a hefty pay increase. Please no posts on how the BOD decides on their compensation when they are lackeys hand-picked by top management. And, yes, I realize this is true of most corporations.

• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: IBM Layoffs" by "rsd1955". Full excerpt: I lost my job in February after 28 years with IBM. Since I was only 52, I couldn't retire and I lost my retirement medical and about 20-25% of my pension. I only needed to get to the end of the year and I could have taken a 1 year bridge, but management did absolutely nothing to help me. My job was eliminated 6 times from September 2003 to October 2007 all so IBM could employ cheaper labor in India. I lost all respect for the corporation and it's management. I am actually working for IBM now as a contractor doing a job that I applied for last October but I was not given an interview for because I had a "3" appraisal on my record (when my job was eliminated). They could have spared me a lot of misery of they had just hired me for this job and allowed me to put in my 10 months, but IBM does not operate that way anymore. The company sucks just like every other big company in America.
• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: IBM Layoffs" by "Adrian Rice". Full excerpt: This post breaks my heart and makes me mad. The same thing almost happened to me when I was "resource actioned". I was offered a job within IBM, but the offer had to be rescinded when the new group's exec found out I had a "3". Because you are now doing as a contractor the same job you applied for as an IBM employee, I believe you have a case for age discrimination. You should see a lawyer -- try to at least get classified back as an IBM employee for the whole time you have been doing this job. Maybe you can get enough service credit to qualify for full retirement.
• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: IBM Layoffs" by "rsd1955". Full excerpt: I spoke with 3 lawyers and all wanted to be paid about $ 300 per hour plus expenses...that could run up quite a bill in no time with no guarantee of any payoff down the line. I forgot to mention that IBM only gave me 3 months of severance pay, the minimum, rather than the 6 months severance I would have received if I was part of a resource action (which they could have given me anyway, it was my manager's choice to give me the minimum). I don't have a lot of savings, having just finished 19 years of child support, so I decided not to employ a lawyer and just to focus on getting on with my career & life.
• Yankton Press & Dakotan: USD To Increase Tribes’ Participation In Computing. Excerpt: A unique partnership of The University of South Dakota, Sinte Gleska University and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) will increase the number of South Dakota American Indians participating information technology-based curriculums and careers. Thanks to a $511,336 grant from the National Science Foundation, Getting American Indians to Information Technology (GAIn-IT) is the focus of a three-year initiative by The University of South Dakota to increase American Indian knowledge and involvement through a dynamic academic program packed with computing opportunities – from pre-college to faculty development. South Dakota has the third highest percentage of American Indian population in the United States. However, several real barriers prevent American Indian students from pursuing computer science courses in college or occupations in the computing industry, primarily the lack of resources at home or in schools.
• USA Today: Printer dots raise privacy concerns. By Thomas Frank, Excerpt: The affordability and growing popularity of color laser printers is raising concerns among civil liberties advocates that your privacy may not be worth the paper you're printing on. More manufacturers are outfitting greater numbers of laser printers with technology that leaves microscopic yellow dots on each printed page to identify the printer's serial number — and ultimately, you, says the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the leading watchdogs of electronic privacy.
• New York Times: GM makes historic cuts in struggle to survive. Excerpt: GM won't say how many white-collar cuts will be made, but Henderson said much of the cost reduction would come from cutting retiree health care benefits. Those over 65 would get a $300 monthly pension increase to make up for the cut.
• Michigan Business Review: GM retiree health cuts will cause sticker shock, health execs say. By Gary Gosselin. Excerpts: General Motors Corp. retirees are likely in for sticker shock after the company announced it is cutting health benefits for retirees older than 65. There are about 97,000 salaried retirees and at least half will be affected by the change. The cuts were announced as part of a $15 billion cost reduction plan for GM. "There's going to be some shock when it comes to premiums and extra costs for what the options are," said Sue Mathiesen, director of research for McGraw Wentworth, a Troy-based benefits consulting firm. ...

  "Any time we see a cutback like this, we see this shift and more people are underinsured, and we're seeing more doctors not accepting Medicare because it doesn't pay as well," Genord said, noting many just pocket the extra money or pay bills. "Some of these patients won't get preventive care and will show up in emergency rooms more," Genord said. "So we see our older population not getting the care they should."

• CNN/Money: GM's Health-Benefit Cut Could Signal Broader Industry Change. Excerpts: General Motors Corp.'s plan to cut health benefits for certain salaried retirees may make only a small dent in profits at Medco Health Solutions Inc., GM's pharmacy benefits manager, but it could signal broader, more significant changes to come for the health-benefits industry.

  "GM's decision to cut retiree benefits is likely to have only small impact on (Medco's) 2009 earnings. Even so, we see the move as a watershed event for the retiree benefits marketplace that is likely to lead other employers to do the same, which will, in turn, cause the issue to grow as an overhang for the stock, " Morgan Stanley analyst David Veal said. ...

  While there hasn't been a dramatic change in recent years, the percentage of large employers offering retiree health benefits has declined substantially in the last two decades, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Among large companies that offer health benefits to active employees, 33% offered retiree health benefits in 2007, compared with 66% in 1988, the foundation said.

• Yahoo! IBM employee issues message board: "Re: GM retiree health cuts will cause sticker shock" by "flatsflyer". Full excerpt: The difference is that GM has been putting this information out to the public for the last several years. IBM on the other hand has only been complaining to it's employees and retirees about how tough business is. The IBM image to public is great, record income, record sales, record profits. The difference between the internal and external reporting and actions is the reason I will not buy any IBM Product or Service. We have not recommended any IBM Product or Service in our consulting practice since 2001.
• Huffington Post: Wall Street Socialism. By Robert L. Borosage. Excerpts: This weekend, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, former head of the Goldman Sachs investment house, provided us with a perfect demonstration of Wall Street socialism. He announced that the Bush administration would seek congressional approval to bail out Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, the government created, but privately owned, profit-making housing finance companies that hold or guarantee nearly half of the US mortgage market -- some $5 trillion in debt. Paulson seeks and will get an unlimited line of credit to guarantee their debt, as well as authority to purchase their shares to supplement their capital base. The Federal Reserve announced it was ready to provide lending while waiting for Congress to act. Paulson said the new subsidies were designed to sustain the two institutions in "their current form." ...

  So now the Bush administration proposes to make the federal guarantee explicit and even to offer taxpayer money to help recapitalize the two banks if needed. Everything has been nationalized -- except the profits and the pay scales of the bank's executives. That's right. If the guarantees work, private speculators, having driven the stock down, will clean up on the upside. And the bank's CEO's will continue to pocket the multi-million dollar salaries that are de rigueur on Wall Street. Call it Wall Street socialism. Their losses are socialized; their profits are pocketed. You and I will pay for their failures. And if conservatives have their way, their families will pocket their successes, without even having to pay a tax for the transfer of the estates we've helped to create. ...

  Why pay dividends to shareholders when they are essentially playing with our money? Why pay managers of public enterprises the bloated pay packages of Wall Street speculators? Why allow them to finance lobbyists to shield them from accountability? The fiction of their separate existence has been exploded; let's save the dough and run them efficiently. ...

  Republicans seem ideologically committed to these kinds of arrangements. In Medicare for example, conservatives have demanded that the government subsidize private insurance companies to compete with public Medicare, even though Medicare provides healthcare much less expensively. When Bush and the DeLay Congress drove through the prescription drug bill, they included a provision that PROHIBITS Medicare from negotiating cheaper prices for drugs, effectively turning the bill from a benefit to Seniors to a multi-billion subsidy to private drug companies (not surprisingly, after Wall Street, the drug companies finance one of the most lavish and powerful lobbies in Washington).

  Now it makes sense to me for the government to subsidize housing mortgages and college loans. Encouraging home ownership and higher education are central to sustaining the broad middle class that is America's triumph. But I can't imagine why we need to let bankers and investors pocket the upside, when they are playing with our money and we're covering their losses. Public enterprise may be staid and bureaucratic, but it's a lot cheaper and more efficient than the perils of Wall Street socialism.

• The Register: Barclays to scrap 1,800 UK tech jobs. By Kelly Fiveash. Excerpt: Barclays is to axe 1,800 IT jobs in the UK as part of a major business overhaul to set up technology centres in key offshore locations around the world, with 700 workers being forced out by September. The bank first told staff about its outsourcing plans in January this year. In a canned statement Barclays said it hoped to “become one of a handful of universal banks leading the global financial services industry, helping our customers and clients throughout the world to achieve their goals.
• Wall Street Journal: Retiree Benefits Take Another Hit. GM's Plan to End Medical Coverage For Many 65 and Over Signals a New Era; Pensions to Increase by $300 a Month. By Vanessa Fuhrmans and Theo Francis. Excerpts: General Motors Corp.'s move to eliminate retiree health benefits for salaried workers is a sobering signal to the rest of the U.S. work force: Even those who are in or near retirement shouldn't count on keeping the company coverage they have built up. Since the early 1990s, employers eager to get out from under the increasing burden of covering their retirees' health care have been whittling away at those benefits. At some companies, new or younger workers have been excluded from retiree health benefits. Older workers and existing retirees often got to keep the benefits, but had to pay a larger share of the overall costs.

  But GM's announcement Tuesday that it would cease medical coverage for its salaried retirees age 65 and above signals that a new era of ever-shrinking benefits has arrived. Beginning in January, even former employees who are already in retirement will lose their benefits, which most of the company's retirees use to supplement gaps in their traditional Medicare coverage. The auto maker will boost monthly pension payouts to help offset the cuts. The company's unionized workers aren't affected by the cut to retiree health benefits. ...

  Retirement-benefit experts have for some time been recommending that all workers -- even those close to retiring and who've "earned" full retiree benefits -- should assume that those benefits will likely be eliminated, either before or during their retirement, and start planning and saving for it. ...

  Unlike just about every other kind of compensation, such as salary or pensions, retiree health benefits can be taken away even after workers have built them up. Indeed, unless a union contract prevents it, companies typically have a free hand to reduce or eliminate retiree health benefits for both active employees and retirees. "Employers can pull the rug out from under their older workers and their retirees at any point -- there's no guarantee these benefits will continue," says Richard Johnson, a retirement researcher at the Urban Institute.

• New York Times opinion: No Friend of the Workers. Excerpts: It should surprise no one, at this point, that an arm of the Bush administration charged with protecting Americans’ rights or safety is not doing its job. Even so, a government report and a Congressional hearing this week painted a disturbing picture of a Labor Department that simply is not standing up for workers.

  President Bush has filled top posts across his administration with people who do not agree with the missions of their organizations. His Environmental Protection Agency has failed to protect the environment; his Justice Department has promoted injustice.

  To lead the Department of Labor, Mr. Bush appointed Elaine Chao, who took office in 2001 arguing that states should be able to opt out of the federal minimum wage — a terrible idea that would drive down wages for the lowest-paid employees. For more than seven years, Ms. Chao has run a department that has tilted toward employers and failed to properly enforce labor laws.

  In a report released this week, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office took a close look at a sampling of cases handled — or, rather, mishandled — by the Wage and Hour Division of the Labor Department. It found that the division failed to adequately investigate complaints that workers were not paid the minimum wage, were denied mandatory overtime or were not paid their last paychecks.